Two Feet & Four Paws: Sharing one remarkable journey

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The week that was

Wiley and I have had a lovely few days. No overnight trips and being able to sleep in our own beds made for a restful and rejuvenating week.

We have still been reasonably busy. Monday we had a Taxi Talk, I had to cut some of the content as the time allocated for the talk was cut down from around 1hour 15 minutes to 45 minutes. I worked on the new content over the weekend and managed to come up with a lesson plan that still got across the most important messages. There just wash’t time for me to go into as much detail as I used to.

My main priority is to ensure the students come away knowing the importance of always talking to passengers with vision loss and not using body language such as pointing or nodding their head. I drum into them that they must always take Guide Dogs in their taxi and what will happen if they reuse. I also give them tips on how best to assist any passengers who are blind or vision impaired and the basics of sighted guiding.

On Tuesday Wiley and I had the great fortune of attending a Morning Tea organised to say thanks to Guide Dogs supporters and bequestors. I had such a lovely time. I tried to talk to everyone personally. Saying thanks to the people who make the wonderful work of Guide Dogs possible is such a privilege.

I also gave a talk, it was meant to be a short one but I couldn’t help but go overtime. I shared what an average day in Wiley’s life is like. People were quite surprised at just how much off duty time and fun he has every day. To show them the difference between a working and off duty Wiley we went for a walk with Wiley out of harness and wearing his recreational collar and lead. Andy, Guide Dogs ambassador dog was also there which made things a lot more fun for everyone.

It was such a great event, I throughly enjoyed myself. It was even more special as my parents and some of my colleagues from the ACT office were there and I was able to say thanks to them for all their love and support as well. Catching up with the wonderful Sydney based Guide Dog staff who organised the event was the cherry on the top of a great day.

Wednesday was errand day, not something I normally look forward to but I made plans to catch up with my sister so we could run errands together. Being able to chat as we banked and shopped made the day a lot more fun.

Friday I headed into the office for a meeting. I was hoping that JAWS would be up and running on one of the Guide Dogs servers that I need to access but the IT guys are still having a few technical difficulties. I am so fortunate to have the wonderful Jo as my job sharing partner. She is truly amazing and has the office running so efficiently. I feel bad that I can’t do much at the moment to assist her . I hope to help out with a couple of projects as my contribution to the office while I wait for JAWS to be operational.

Thanks to some perfect spring weather Wiley and I have been enjoy lots of our longer bush walks. It is the perfect way to start the day.

Next week I am enrolled in a two day First Aid course, It will be interesting figuring out how to administer First Aid with my visual limitations. I’ll update the blog next week with how things go.